Vator Splash SF (February 2013)

Win the chance to present on stage at Splash SF on February 13 in San Francisco in front of some 400 business professionals, comprising of executives from startups and large companies, angel investors, VCs, and media.

To win the VC sit-down prize, you must be one of the top 10 hot startups to showcase at the event. To be one of the top 10, you have to apply to this competition and be vetted by judges.

To qualify you must be under 3 years old, and have raised no more than $1.5 million in funding.

Even though success is not defined by how much money a company has raised, DogVacay, Getable, Thumbtack, Astrid, Udemy, Plink and Geeklist, to name a few, have gone on to raise millions of dollars collectively from venerable VCs, soon after presenting at Splash.

Here's some recent testimonials from past winners:

"Having the opportunity to demonstrate Apartment List at Vator Splash and talk about our vision to an audience of top-tier VC investors and entrepreneurs was an exciting honor. Bambi and team put on an great night of Silicon Valley networking. We made meaningful connections at Splash as well as on Vator that are proving fruitful for our business, and winning the start up competition was icing on the cake. Thanks Bambi and team for creating a great investor and entrepreneur community and packing the house with a fantastic audience at your events,"John Kobs, CEO and co-founder of Apartment List.

"At Vator Splash, I made great connections with a number of investors and had a number of follow-up meetings. We were able to raise our last round entirely from investors who discovered us from the publicity we generated from Vator Splash," said Jon Paris, CEO and founder of Astrid.

"Working with Vator, and Bambi, is a pleasure. She's really passionate about uniting great ideas with the right people. We actually tied for first in last years Vator Splash SF and as a direct result raised $150,000 from an investor who saw us pitch. TEEC Angels approached us right at the event and invested soon thereafter. Reuben Katz, CEO and founder of Geeklist.

"Events like Vator Splash are critical for startups to generate awareness. We were a top 10 finalist for Splash LA. It provided us with an amazing opportunity to network and gain exposure to a whole community of investors and VCs. Soon after, we raised $3M as a result of the momentum/exposure from the event and the platform in general." Peter Vogel, founder of Plink.

For details about how to win, see round details section.

What do the top 10 finalists win? The opportunity to give a three-minute presentation onstage. A professional video of their presentation produced by Vator. A free ticket to the event, and discounted tickets for their network. Discounted tickets for future Vator events. A bottle of wine. Free back-office consultation and work courtesy Backops. Other in-kind prizes TBD.

The Splash winner (voted by judges) and People's Choice winner (voted by the audience) get: Same as top 10, a magnum of wine, courtesy Manifesto; a demo table at the next Splash event; Discounts to Vator events; opportunity to be an online judge for the next Splash and other goodies. Two-hour accounting consultation courtesy KPMG; An one-hour sit-down VC meeting with Javelin Venture Partners, Floodgate, Alsop Louie Partners and Morgenthaler, the early-stage VCs behind Evernote, Lending Club, and Siri.

Start-ups must be three years old or under. Start-ups must not have raised more than $1.5 million in funding. Start-ups must apply with a company profile on Vator.

Rules:

The popular vote determines the top 15 to 20 finalists. The number of finalists are determined at the end of the round.
Voters are limited to one vote per Participant for the entire competition. Participants may vote for their own company. Vator and the contest organizers have the right, in their sole discretion, to take whatever action they deem appropriate to uphold the integrity and reputation of Vator, the organizer and the competition, including the right to disqualify companies, void votes, or recalculate votes, in the event of, but not limited to, multiple votes from the same user from different IP addresses, or votes considered fraudulent, technical failures, errors or problems occurring with the site and/or Internet services, failure of judges to perform their duties, proxy voting or payment for votes.

Type:
Judges

Start date:
Tuesday, January 29, 2013 11:00 PM PST

End date:
Tuesday, February 05, 2013 11:00 PM PST

Vote weight: 10% popular vote from previous round and 90% judges.

Judging criteria

Novelty/Innovation

Does this product/service solve a clear market problem? Is it a new and novel approach to solve a problem? Is there enough differentiation that gives this idea a fighting chance against competitors?

Market potential

Is the market a big macro opportunity? Does this startup have a clear market niche and user group? Did they indicate clearly their go-to-market strategy to attract users? Did they clearly articulate their business model? Did they demonstrate how they will compete effectively? Is this business a venture-backed opportunity or a life-style business?

Team

Is the team relevant to the opportunity? Does the team have the expertise to succeed? Is the team clear about the objectives? Can the team convey the opportunity?

Requirements:

Start-ups must be three years old or under. Start-ups must not have raised more than $1.5 million in funding. Start-ups must apply with a company profile on Vator.

Rules:

The popular vote determines the top 15 to 20 finalists. The number of finalists are determined at the end of the round.
Voters are limited to one vote per Participant for the entire competition. Participants may vote for their own company. Vator and the contest organizers have the right, in their sole discretion, to take whatever action they deem appropriate to uphold the integrity and reputation of Vator, the organizer and the competition, including the right to disqualify companies, void votes, or recalculate votes, in the event of, but not limited to, multiple votes from the same user from different IP addresses, or votes considered fraudulent, technical failures, errors or problems occurring with the site and/or Internet services, failure of judges to perform their duties, proxy voting or payment for votes.

Rebecca is a General Partner at Canvas, where she focuses on early-stage investments in financial services, digital health, SaaS, and mobile. She led Canvas’s investments in CrowdFlower, FutureAdvisor, HealthLoop, and Viewics, and currently sits on the boards of each. Rebecca was named a “Midas List Hot Prospect” by Forbes in 2013. She was also named a “Top Women VC” by Forbes in 2013 and 2014.

In 2007, Rebecca joined Morgenthaler Ventures and continues to serve on the boards of that firm’s portfolio companies. She led investments in Lending Club (NYSE: LC), Practice Fusion, Check (acquired by Intuit), Doximity, RelateIQ (acquired by Salesforce), and Convo. Rebecca is a board member of Lending Club, Doximity, Convo, and a board observer of Adara Media and Socrata.

Rebecca began her career at Procter and Gamble’s corporate headquarters where she launched new products internationally. She spent time in both Cincinnati and Mexico City developing new products and launching a new category in Latin America. She then joined NextCard as employee number 30, and rose up the ranks to become VP of Marketing and head of customer acquisition. During her four years at NextCard, Rebecca led product development efforts and managed one of the top-five largest online marketing efforts of that time. NextCard was the first online credit card company, and it went public in 2000 with a $1.3B market cap. After NextCard, she ran her own consulting business focused on online marketing for financial services and affiliate marketing.

Rebecca is a member of the California Bar Association and a member of the US Patent Bar, with a focus on intellectual property litigation and corporate law. She was published in the Berkeley Law and Technology Journal. Rebecca is also an inventor on several issued patents.

Paul is the founder of four companies and active early stage investor. He was most recently the CEO and founder of Aggregate Knowledge. In 1990, Paul started his first venture which was an online gaming company. In these pre-internet, bulletin board days, he was one of the original innovators to bring to life the multi-player user experience. Paul’s early games from almost 20 years ago are the inspiration for several of the modern social gaming offerings. In 1997, Paul founded Ahpah Software, a computer security firm that was the result of his work as a Ph.D. student at Princeton University. Paul’s tools for reverse engineering and obfuscation were first used by the premier security lab, the Princeton Secure Internet Programming Lab (SIP). In 1999, Ahpah Software was split into two companies and one half was acquired by InterTrust Technologies. Paul went to InterTrust as part of the acquisition and moved into roles in business development, strategic alliances, and mergers & acquisitions. In 2003, Paul formed Tribe Network, one of the first social networks, with Mark Pincus, Chris Law, and Valerie Syme. Tribe’s lead investors were Mayfield, The Washington Post, and Knight Ridder. Tribe’s assets were acquired by Cisco and are the cornerstore of Cisco’s Entertainment Operating System (EOS). Paul is the inventor of several core patents related to social networking. In 2005, Paul and Chris Law formed their second venture together, Aggregate Knowledge. Aggregate Knowledge was the natural product of their early work in social networking. The key insight being that the data produced by such networks would be highly valuable for predictive modeling and targeting. Aggregate Knowledge has raised over $35 million in financing from First Round Capital, Kleiner Perkins, DAG, and OVP. Paul is a limited partner in First Round Capital and has been doing angel investing for almost a decade. Some of his investments include Zynga, PayNearMe, and Zvents. Paul holds a BS in Mathematics from Lehigh University and Masters in Computer Science from Princeton University